JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israel said on Thursday a Muslim militant found dead after a blast in the West Bank was the deputy of one of its most wanted men and that he was killed while planting a roadside bomb.
A statement by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, which oversees Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency, stopped short of saying that Israeli occupation forces had killed Mustafa Rawajbeh, a member of the Islamic militant Hamas group. (Read photo caption below)
Rawajbeh was the long-time deputy of Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a senior Hamas military leader, it said.
In the West Bank late on Thursday, two Palestinians were shot and wounded in their car. Israel Radio reported that Palestinian witnesses said the shots were fired from a passing Israeli vehicle.
Israeli security officials have said a squad of Jewish vigilantes is at large in the West Bank and that it carried out several attacks against Palestinians last summer.
Jewish settlers have also been attacked by Palestinians on West Bank roads during a year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Israel tried to kill Abu Hanoud, number one on its most-wanted list, in May by sending warplanes to bomb his Palestinian prison. The army said then that he had been slightly wounded and that Israel had tried to kill him twice before.
Outside the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian ambulance workers collected Rawajbeh's dismembered body from among olive trees. Spent bullet casings were strewn around him.
Doctors said he was killed by a blast but it was unclear whether it caused by a tank shell or a bomb he was preparing. T
PHOTO CAPTION:
Palestinians pray during funeral ceremonies for Hani Mustafa Rawajbeh, 24, in the West Bank city of Nablus, October 11, 2001. Israel said a Muslim militant found dead after a blast in the West Bank was the deputy of one of its most wanted men and that he was killed while planting a roadside bomb. (Alaa Badarneh/Reuters)